How to create delight in the developer workplace

We’re not claiming that a development platform can make you happy. But we do know it can bring you small moments of delight. 🌞

Enough of those moments can give you a boost of energy to finish a project, restore your excitement to work through a tough problem, and clear your mind so you can bring your best self to work. 

Here are five things you can do today to create moments of delight for yourself and your colleagues. 

1. Dabble on the lighter side of GitHub. Not everything on GitHub has to be serious. Experiencing a mental block? Step away and browse through awesome-hilarious-repos. 

Here are some of our favorites:

🌈lolcat, which turns drab command line interfaces into colorful rainbows. 

🥔 Potato. Fork this repository just so you can say you forked a potato.  

🐍 QR.rb, a Ruby program that generates a Rust program that generates a Scala program that generates that program through 128 different languages before generating the original Ruby program again. 

These just-for-fun repositories can stimulate your creativity or just offer a fun break from the stress of your day-to-day coding. You can also use them as conversation starters and foster connection among your teammates. You might even feel inspired to create and share your own. 

👉 See the rest of our favorite funny GitHub repositories.

2. Git good with Git. If you’re a developer, you’re probably using Git as your version control system (VCS). Git is the foundation of developer life and having a strong knowledge base will take you far. 

The more familiar you can become with Git, the easier it’ll be for you to track and manage changes in code, collaborate with your teammates, resolve any code conflicts, and improve existing codebases by experimenting with new features. 

If you’re a new developer, we’ve got you covered. Kedasha Kerr, a developer advocate at GitHub, breaks down the basics of Git in her series of blog posts Git for beginners. 

📓 In the first post of the series, “What is Git?” Kedasha shares the Git terms you need to know, as well as how to install and configure the VCS on your machine.

(And in case you were wondering, no, Git and GitHub are not the same. 😉)

📓 In her second post, Kedasha walks you through the top 12 Git commands every developer must know. 

A command like git checkout allows you to create a branch (copy) of your repository so you can make changes to that copy without interfering with the original.

And git switch allows you to easily switch between your branch and the main branch (the original copy of the codebase). It’s also useful for merging changes back into main.

📓 Kedasha’s third post shows you how to create your first repository on GitHub. You can also watch the video to follow along:

📓And her latest gives you step-by-step instructions for uploading files and folders to GitHub. Watch the short video breakdown here: 

3. Experiment with AI. There’s nothing like the sweet relief that comes from having a task you didn’t want to do already taken care of.

For example, rather than writing repetitive code patterns to generate CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations for a database, you can prompt an AI coding tool like GitHub Copilot to provide relevant suggestions.The grunt work is done, and now you just have to review it. 

We found that GitHub Copilot can help you code up to 55% faster and improves the developer experience. 

In fact, Accenture, which has 12,000 developers using GitHub Copilot, can attest to the power of AI coding tools to improve developer efficiency without sacrificing code quality. 90% of the developers at Accenture reported that they committed code suggested by GitHub Copilot, according to a study from GitHub’s Customer Research team. And 91% reported that their teams merged pull requests containing code suggested by the AI coding tool. 

We’re working hard to make it easier for you to bring the benefits of AI to your workplace. 

• Looking to build and deploy to the cloud, in your natural language, with your preferred tools and services, all without leaving the IDE or GitHub.com? You can with sixteen different GitHub Copilot Extensions.

Ask @docker in Copilot Chat how to containerize your application and watch it generate the Docker assets (and even open a pull request) for you. Or chat with Datastax about where your data lives and the best ways to connect to it using a specific client. You can access all GitHub Copilot Extensions through the GitHub Marketplace. Extensions are supported in GitHub Copilot Chat on GitHub.com, Visual Studio, and Visual Studio Code.

• If you have trouble getting started on a project, you’re not alone. A common problem that developers face is deciding on the first steps of a big project, feature request, or even bug report. With GitHub Copilot Workspace, you can use GitHub Copilot as a second brain to get started on an idea. GitHub Copilot Workspace allows you to brainstorm, build, test, and run code, all in natural language.

For example, GitHub Copilot Workspace can give you a natural language, step-by-step plan to solve a bug report issue, including validation and testing measures. GitHub Copilot Workspace even generates the code to address the issue, creating the plan using its deep understanding of the codebase, issue replies, and more.

You’re free to customize this plan or accept it as is. Once you’re satisfied, you file the pull request, run your GitHub Actions, security code scanning, and ask your team members for human code review.

Sign up to get on the waitlist for the GitHub Copilot Workspace technical preview.

• If you’ve started experimenting with GitHub Copilot but find yourself asking how to prompt the AI coding tool to provide more contextually relevant suggestions, try chat participants in GitHub Copilot Chat. If you’re a Visual Studio Code user, you can call three built-in chat participants simply by using the @ symbol to include your development environment for more relevant answers: 

@workspace has context about the code in your workspace and can help you navigate that context by surfacing relevant files or classes.

@vscode knows about commands and features in the VS Code editor itself and can help you use them. 

@terminal has context about the integrated terminal shell and its contents. 

4. Find a fun way to develop your soft skills. In the age of AI, soft skills remain just as important as the technical ones. You still need to be able to work well with others, solve problems with creativity, and remain empathetic with identifying solutions for customers.

Those soft skills include problem solving, adaptability, ethical thinking, and empathy. Michelle Duke, a GitHub developer advocate, shares tips for how to develop them:

• Participate in hackathons to build your problem solving, adaptability, and creativity. 👩💻 A hackathon is designed to build creative solutions to complex problems. Solutions go through several iterations over the course of one hackathon as the team adapts to new information.

• Go on a hike. ⛰️ Or engage in a similar activity that pushes you to prepare for the unexpected. This type of experience provides practice in keeping a level head, maintaining confidence, and exercising smart judgment.

• When you’re working, take a decision, process, or project and ask yourself one or all of the following questions: Why is something done a certain way? Can it be done better? How did we arrive at these results? Are the results useful? Why or why not? 🧠

Asking these questions can help us become more critical and ethical thinkers. They can reveal biases and concerns around transparency, fairness, and privacy. Our ability to question reality will make us valuable in the age of AI and automation. 

5. Glitz up your GitHub profile. Jazzing up your profile is a fun way to start engaging with the developer community. Your GitHub profile is where you can promote your interests, what you want to learn, and what you can offer. 

Looking for ideas and inspiration? Take a look at some stellar examples we featured just a few months ago:

Monica Powell, known on GitHub as @M0nica.

Thaiane Braga, known on GitHub as @Thaiane. 

And Waylon Walker, known on GitHub as, well, @WaylonWalker.

Read our guide to adding personality to your GitHub profile. You can also use this checklist to get started with the basics. And if you want to put your new profile to good use, our guide shows you fun ways you can interact with the GitHub community.  

6. Here’s a bonus tip! 🎉Subscribe to the GitHub Insider newsletter. 👇 If you’re a GitHub superfan and want to become a GitHub superuser, this is the newsletter for you. You’ll learn the holy-cow tips and tricks you can do with GitHub.

7. Here’s one more bonus tip. 🎂 Take 20 minutes to help GitHub, the Linux Foundation, and researchers from Harvard University understand how organizations fund, contribute to, or support open source software projects.

We're working with the Linux Foundation and researchers from Harvard University to learn more about how organizations fund, contribute to, or support open source software projects. We're hoping to hear from open source program offices, heads of engineering, C-level executives, and other individuals with a solid understanding of their organization's open source engagement. If this is you, please take the survey to help create a thriving open source ecosystem.

Learn more at GitHub Universe

What's your plan to maximize your happiness as a developer? Join us at GitHub Universe 2024, where we'll explore the latest in AI, security, and developer experience—giving you the tools and frameworks you need to supercharge your productivity and delight. 

Save the date and get early bird tickets now.

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✨ This newsletter was written by Nicole Choi and produced by Gwen Davis. ✨